Rare Exports – A Christmas Tale.

A Rare Christmas Film!

You know the type of film I’m referring too, its normally pretty dreadful but because of this ‘season to be jolly’ rubbish people feel they have to profess to love it - even if it is a load of cack. This was brought home when Film Club regular Alec Barclay read out a list of the top ten Christmas films that included the usual seasonal dross like It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Love Actually (2003) or Home Alone (1990) – I rest my case. But as it turned out the final Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club of 2014 was far removed from the traditional Christmas fare, which Mr Barclay described as a cross between deadpan humour and Christmas horror. I must admit that I love the idea of Santa being evil or as Peter Bradshaw reminded us in his film review, “Santa is an anagram of Satan”[1]

 

If I have to sit through Its A Wonderful Life again ....

 I reproduce my original blog first published in March 2012 and would point out that I personally enjoyed this alternate Christmas film as much as I did when I first saw it on DVD.  

“It’s a rare Christmas movie that does not require a sick bag and Jalmari Helander’s Rare Exports – A Christmas Tale (2010) is one that certainly doesn’t! It’s basic premise offers an alternative to the standard Christmas brief where parents reward their off springs for being good little dears. In this film Father Christmas’s elves goes from home to home punishing the little retches for being naughty and disobedient in the twelve months prior to what we laughingly refer to as the festive season… Now that would save you a few bob?

 

He's our Santa not yours - got it!!!!!

In this Finish fantasy a American scientists instructs his team of workman to dig open ‘the largest burial mound in the world.’ Using explosives to uncover the sacred grave, he discovered that what ever is buried there is packed tightly in sawdust, but the most startling discovery is that the mounds inhabitant is still breathing! The local reindeer farmer’s awake one morning to find their stock, which they depend on for their income, has been decimated. They also discover that the heating radiators have been stolen from all the homes in the village? A brave local boy, Pietari, soon realises that this mystery concerns the original Santa Claus myth a supernatural being that punishes children. A rare Finish export indeed”. 

Have a Divine Christmas everyone.

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[1] The Guardian 2^nd December 2010.